Never forget the milk: staples and your weekly grocery list

The most common grocery failure is not the special ingredient for Tuesday's curry — it is the milk, bread, and coffee you buy every single week and forgot to write down.

The staples pattern

• Keep a short list of items you always want on the shopping list.
• Have them added automatically every time the week's ingredients are generated.
• Check them off like anything else — anyone in the family, from any phone.

Combined with aisle grouping and a shared link, staples turn the weekly list from a memory test into a checklist.